The present invention concerns a process in accord with the manipulation of an empty spool on a textile machine and further concerns an apparatus for the carrying out of said process.
Already within the scope of common knowledge is a situation, wherein an empty spool, which is brought to a grasping apparatus by means of a spool conveyor is not to be requisitioned and picked up by the said grasping apparatus, when said spool locates itself at a spinning station which requires a spool, but is called for and picked up at an earlier time, after the conclusion of a transfer of an empty spool at the spool apparatus of a spinning station (see DE 195 29 566 A1). If an empty spool is subsequently requisitioned by a spinning station, then, the grasping apparatus, located in a mobile maintenance conveyance, can be brought to the proper spinning station carrying the previously seized empty spool, whereupon, said maintenance conveyance can immediately start its prescribed work. However, experience has shown, that the immediate attempts to deliver empty spools, which have been carried to the selected spinning station by the said maintenance conveyance, often fail, since the empty spools are not precisely aligned with the spool locating arms of the said selected spinning or spool station.